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Seizures and one-sided weakness

Fri, 01/02/2009 - 08:19
Topic: Living With Epilepsy - Adults

Out of idle curiosity, has anyone had this?  I'll notice some mornings that my right side will be weak when I wake up.  Not profoundly so, but enough to get my attention and make walking a bit interesting.

While not formally dx'd yet, I'm pretty sure I've been having nocturnal seizures (simple partials) since April of last year.  However, my seizures changed about 2 months ago to include what I think are complex partials and that's when the right-sided weakness started.  I'm concerned about having seizures in my sleep that I don't remember and wondering if the right-sided weakness could be related.

I have an appt with an Epi in 2 weeks, but was hoping to gather a bit of info prior to that regarding this.  I know you guys aren't docs, but any advice or experience in this dept would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Comments

I can always hear through my

Submitted by Nannoo on Sat, 2017-09-09 - 03:28
I can always hear through my seizures and remember everything although I can't speak. The only times I can't remember is when they have given me so much sedation I sleep.

Re: Seizures and one-sided weakness

Submitted by 3Hours2Live on Sat, 2009-01-03 - 06:06
An old rule of thumb has it that the right side of the brain dominates the left side of the body and vice-versa; plus, right-handed people "think" with their left half of the brain, and vice- versa. I'm half-way ambidextrous, so the rule ain't ironclad at all. Many neurological problems focused in one half of the brain will cause problems on the opposite side of the body (from twitches, jerks, numbness, weakness, pain, etc.), as a general rule. My partial seizures, and at times intense migraines, would give me the sensation that my body on the left side was real numb, to real weak; occasionally the sensation would hit that the left side of my body had disappeared; vision in my right eye usually suffered the most from migraines though. The right side of my body was relatively immune to these things until I started to have frequent tonic-clonic seizures. During a frontal subdural hematoma (that I tried waiting out, thinking it was an extra long and bad migraine till a second tonic-clonic hit), I had to "drag" the weak left side of me along to stumble around (with my right vision having frequent "white-outs"); I started to "lose" the right-half of my body too, shortly after the second tonic-clonic and then I called emergency (they said I had 3 hours to live, and I had six holes drilled in my head to let the pressured blood-pools out). After the operation, now my right side is continually weaker than my left side, while my left side still fluctuates from normal to numb to weak with my migraines and partial seizures. It is important to keep the effects and after-effects of seizures separate; the "effects" of a seizure are usually minutes at most, while the after-effects can be hours to days. During one seizure, which made me briefly feel "numb", my left arm and back tensed up so strong that I was weak and sore in that arm and my back for days afterward.

Re: Seizures and one-sided weakness

Submitted by confuzzed on Mon, 2009-01-05 - 07:19

Wow!  You've had quite the ride!  Scary stuff.  Glad you made it past the 3 hours tho.  Now I understand your screen name.

I don't get numbness.  Just weakness and sometimes pain, along with fatigue and the 'all-over stupids'.  Wondering now if the reason my right leg hurts so much some mornings is because I've been tensing it during seizures at night.  Also have a history of migraines, although they haven't bothered me much in the past few years.  Just plain ol' migraines tho - no auras or anything interesting with them.  Since seizures can change, wondering if migraines can do that as well. 

I have a very small gliosis in my left lentiform nucleus, revealed through an MRI.  The radiologist said it was most likely non-symptomatic and both the neuro and the neurosurgeon who've taken a look have confirmed that.  However, the MRI was done before I started the seizures.  Would love to get another MRI done to see if it's changed any, since the majority of my neuro symptoms are manifesting on the right side.

Thanks for your input... again!  I don't feel quite so alone in this now. :)

Wow!  You've had quite the ride!  Scary stuff.  Glad you made it past the 3 hours tho.  Now I understand your screen name.

I don't get numbness.  Just weakness and sometimes pain, along with fatigue and the 'all-over stupids'.  Wondering now if the reason my right leg hurts so much some mornings is because I've been tensing it during seizures at night.  Also have a history of migraines, although they haven't bothered me much in the past few years.  Just plain ol' migraines tho - no auras or anything interesting with them.  Since seizures can change, wondering if migraines can do that as well. 

I have a very small gliosis in my left lentiform nucleus, revealed through an MRI.  The radiologist said it was most likely non-symptomatic and both the neuro and the neurosurgeon who've taken a look have confirmed that.  However, the MRI was done before I started the seizures.  Would love to get another MRI done to see if it's changed any, since the majority of my neuro symptoms are manifesting on the right side.

Thanks for your input... again!  I don't feel quite so alone in this now. :)

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